Archive for date: June 1st, 2017

I wanted to let residents know that a pre-hearing date has been set by the Ontario Municipal Board. This has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Burlington in Room 305.

Official notice of the hearing will be circulated by the appellant in accordance with the Board’s rules.

How to attend:
This pre-hearing is open to the public and no pre-registration is required.

Background:
Staff report regarding Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment Applications for 4853 Thomas Alton Boulevard (PB-100-16) was considered at the Development and Infrastructure Committee on December 13, 2016. After much debate I brought forward a motion to refuse the development. At the City of Burlington Council meeting on Dec. 19, 2016, Council passed the following recommendation to refuse the development proposal.

Refuse the application for Official Plan Amendment to modify the “Residential-High Density – Site Specific Policy” affecting 4853 Thomas Alton Boulevard to permit a residential development consisting of traditional townhouses, stacked townhouses, and apartments with a maximum density of 305 units per hectare and maximum height of 19 storeys; and

While I believe that many of the improvements and modifications made by the developer were good for the Alton community, I had hoped and expected the applicant to reduce the tower height, but unfortunately this was not the case. In essence, it was the no reduction of height that formed my decision to refuse.

Despite this, there was one good outcome of this planning event which was that staff have agreed to review the traffic concerns in Alton. This will help to address traffic in a more robust fashion and I expect a plan for traffic calming and improved traffic flow will result.